In Sumerland, M. Lee Buompensiero tells a fascinating tale that makes the case that family secrets are best uncovered and allowed to breathe. When secrets are stifled, the results are often worse for those the secret-keepers imagine they are protecting than would be the truth. This is the case for Kate Post, Sumerland‘s protagonist. TheContinue reading “Book Review: Sumerland”
Category Archives: Book Review
Book Review: Revival
I am in awe. I want to give this book more than five stars, but I don’t want to have to recalibrate my other reviews. Five stars mean I love it, and I loved Revival. Revival is the first of Stephen King’s book I have read. After having seen several movies based on his books, I hadContinue reading “Book Review: Revival”
Book Review: The Ivory Caribou
Recently widowed Anne O’Malley undertakes genealogical research into her father-in-law’s past as a way to remain connected to her deceased husband, but she discovers instead an extended Inuit family eager for her to join them for a future that connects her with the past at the same time as it beckons her forward into a new life.Continue reading “Book Review: The Ivory Caribou”
Book Review: The Emigrants
Eight adults, each for their own reasons, reach the point they feel abandoning their homes in Sweden in favor of enduring a treacherous sea voyage to New York is the only way to find a dignified life for themselves and their eight children. The sixteen featured emigrants joined more than sixty other courageous souls onContinue reading “Book Review: The Emigrants”
Book Review: Say It Like Shakespeare
Tom Leech’s Say It Like Shakespeare presents communication tips for business people through comparison with Shakespeare’s language. While the subtitle of the book, The Bard’s Timeless Tips for Communication Success, misled me slightly, leading me to expect more direct references to communication within Shakespeare’s drama, Leech’s deft selection of examples made it clear his tips areContinue reading “Book Review: Say It Like Shakespeare”
Book Review: Wild Ginger
Anchee Min’s Wild Ginger relates a love story in the midst of turmoil told from the point of view of a teenage girl, Maple, who suffers at the hands of a bully, Hot Pepper, because Maple’s father was in a forced labor camp at the beginning of Mao’s Cultural Revolution. She meets the title character, WildContinue reading “Book Review: Wild Ginger”
Book Review: The Genie Who Had Wishes of HIs Own
Margaret Harmon’s 22 21st-century fables provide lessons about greed, hubris, jealousy, pride, procrastination, living through others, idealism, creativity, wasted opportunities, optimism vs pessimism, and the question of just what is success. Some are reminiscent of traditional fairy tales, especially three involving magic lamps and turbaned genies, “The Ingénue and the Genie,” “Freeing the Genie,” and “The Second-bestContinue reading “Book Review: The Genie Who Had Wishes of HIs Own”
Book Review: Leaving Before the Rains Come
“‘The problem with most people,’ Dad said once, not necessarily implying that I counted as most people, but not discounting the possibility either, ‘is that they want to be alive for as long as possible without having any idea whatsoever how to live.’” Alexandra Fuller learned from her parents how to live. She has lived enoughContinue reading “Book Review: Leaving Before the Rains Come”
Book Review: Cocktail Hour Under the Tree of Forgetfulness
Cocktail Hour Under the Tree of Forgetfulness is Alexandra Fuller’s second book covering her family’s experience in east Africa. The first, Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight, which her mother describes as an Awful Book, tells the story from her perspective. In Cocktail Hour Under the Tree of Forgetfulness, she expands the story to includeContinue reading “Book Review: Cocktail Hour Under the Tree of Forgetfulness”
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