My Review:
Other Press|January 31, 2012|Trade Paperback|ISBN: 978-1-59051-463-4
A poignant and inspirational love story set in Burma, THE ART OF HEARING HEARTBEATS spans the decades between the 1950s and the present. When a successful New York lawyer suddenly disappears without a trace, neither his wife nor his daughter Julia has any idea where he might be...until they find a love letter he wrote many years ago, to a Burmese woman they have never heard of. Intent on solving the mystery and coming to terms with her father's past, Julia decides to travel to the village where the woman lived. There she uncovers a tale of unimaginable hardship resilience, and passion that will reaffirm the reader's belief in the power of love to move mountains.
I was so enamoured with this story that I just couldn't put it down. This is one of the best novels I've read in awhile. I was mesmermized and my eyes were glued to every single word on the page. The descriptive narrative was so well done that I could see, hear and smell the sights and sounds as I traveled around with Tin Win and Mi Mi. I totally fell in love with this couple and will remember them for a long time to come. Don't miss out on this one, it was really very, very well done.
My Review:
HarperCollins|March 21, 2002|Trade Paperback|ISBN: 978-0-06-251731-9
When five women from the Hope Springs Community Church in North Carolina form a committee to create a church cookbook, they embark on a project much more meaningful than they could have ever imagined. As novice pastor Charlotte Stewart, no-nonsense Margaret Peele, maverick Louise Fisher, steadfast Jessie Jenkins, and busybody Beatrice Newgarden meet to share recipes, they begin to open their lives and hearts as well.
For the amount of arguments they get themselves into, they really do maintain a bond of friendship like no other. And opinionated, Louise Fisher takes on a sick friend dying from dementia and has a very difficult time coping with her death. But, not to worry, her friends are ever at her side.
This was a cute and easy read and apparently there are two other books that follow this one which I plan to pick up so I can complete the trilogy. Very light, enjoyable read.
My Review:
Gallery Books|March 4, 2014|Hardcover|ISBN: 978-1-4767-3152-0
I am a secret no one is able to tell.
Blythe Hallowell is sixteen when she is abducted by a survivalist and locked away in an abandoned missile silo in Eudora, Kansas. At first, she focuses frantically on finding a way out, until the harrowing truth of her new existence settles in-the crushing loneliness, the terrifying madness of a captor who believes he is saving her from the end of the world, and the persistent temptation to give up. But nothing prepares Blythe for the burden of raising a child in confinement. Determined to give the boy everything she has lost, she pushes aside the truth about a world he may never see for a myth that just might give meaning to their lives below ground. Years later, their lives are ambushed by an event at once promosing and devastating. As Blythe's dream of going home hangs in the balance, she faces the ultimate choice-between survival and freedom, a freedom she needs for herself and her son, Adam.
ABOVE is a riveting tale of resilience, bravery, patience, and the ultimate ability to survive. I don't know that I would of had the fortitude to survive what Blythe did. However, being locked away for seventeen years as she was, I suppose I wouldn't of had much choice. I don't think I could of handled it emotionally well. Great book which I'll be highly recommending.
MY REVIEW:
HarperCollins Publishers|March 17, 2014|Hardcover|ISBN: 978-0-227032-0
At Hourglass Vintage in Madison, Wisconsin, every item in the boutique has a story to tell...and so do the women whose lives the store touches.
Yellow Samsonite suitcase with ivory, quilted lining, 1950s
A small-town girl with a flair for fashion, Violet Turner had always dreamed of owning a shop like Hourglass Vintage. But while she values the personal history behind each beautiful item she sells, Violet is running from her own past. Faced with the possibility of losing the store to an unscrupulous developer, she realizes that despite her usual self-reliance she cannot save it alone.
Taffeta tea-length wedding gown with scooped neckline and cap sleeves, 1952
Eighteen-year-old April Morgan is nearly five months along in an unplanned pregnancy when her hasty engagement is broken. When she returns the perfect vintage wedding dress to Violet's shop, she discovers a world of new possibilities, and an unexpected sisterhood with women who won't let her give up on her dreams.
Orange silk sari with gold paisley design, 1968
Betrayed by her husband, Amithi Singh begins selling off her vibrant Indian dresses, remanants of a life she's determined to leave behind her. After decades of housekeeping and parenting a daughter who rejects her traditional ways, she fears her best days are behind her...until she discovers an outlet for her creativity and skills with a needle and thread.
An engaging story that beautifully captures the essence of friendship and style, VINTAGE is a charming tale of possibility, of finding renewal, love, and hope when we least expect it.
The friendship these women forge is beyond beautiful. I totally fell in love with this story and didn't want it to end.
MY REVIEW:
Fitzhenry & Whiteside|October 17, 2007|Trade Paperback|ISBN: 978-1-55455-086-9
There is a lion in our village, and it is carrying away our children.
At her father's funeral, Binti's grandmother utters the words that no one in Malawi wants to hear. Binti's father and her mother before him, dies of AIDS. Binti, her sister, and brother are separated and sent to the home of relatives who can barely tolerate their presence. Ostracized by their extended family, the orphans are treated like the lowest servants. With her brother far away and her sister wallowing in her own sorrow, Binti can hardly contain her rage. She, Binti Phirim, was once a child star of a popular radio program. Now she is scraping to survive. Binti always believed she was special, now she is nothing but a common AIDS orphan.
Binti Phiri is not about to give up. Even as she clings to hope that her former life will be restored, she must face a greater challenge. If she and her brother and sister are to be reunited, Binti will have to look outside herself and find a new way to be special.
Compelling and uplifting, THE HEAVEN SHOP, is a contemporary novel that puts a very real face on the African AIDS pandemic, which to-date has orphaned more than 11 million African children. Inspired by a young radio performer the author met during her research visit to Malawi, Binti Phiri is a compelling character that readers will never forget.
Binti is outspoken and not afraid to stick up for her rights and makes her opinions known. She is a brave girl.
My Review:
WW Norton|March 18, 2014|Hardcover|ISBN: 978-0-393-06928-0
"A perfect little figure," he says. "Our mannequin girl." She knows who mannequin girls are. They are in her grandmother's Working Woman magazines, modeling flouncy dresses and berets. "Bend," he tells her, and she does, so pliant, so obedient."
Growing up in Soviet Russia, Kat Knopman worships her parents, tempermental Anechka and soft-hearted, absent-minded, Misha. Young Jewish intellectuals, they teach literature at a Moscow school, run a drama club, and dabble in political radicalism. Kat sees herself as their heir and ally. But when she's diagnosed with rapidly-progressing scoliosis, the trajectory of her life changes and she finds herself at a different institution a school - sanatorium for children with spinal ailments. Confined to a brace, surrounded by unsympathetic peers, Kat embarks on a quest to prove that she can be as exceptional as her parents: a beauty, an intellect, and free spirit on a quest to prove that she can be as exceptional as her parents: a beauty, an intellect, and free spirit despite her physical limitations, her Jewishness, and her suspicion that her beloved parents are in fact flawed. Can a girl with a crooked spine really be a mannequin girl, her parents pride and her doctors and teachers glory? Or will she prove to be something far more ordinary and, thereby, more her own? An unforgettable heroine, Kat will have to find the courage to face the world and break free not only of her metal brace but of all the constraints that bind her.
Kat Knopman is a brave girl struggling to do what is right and what is best for her in her world. MANNEQUIN GIRL is rich, funny, humane, devastating, and beautiful. I fell in love with Kat.
Story Description:
Baker Publishing Group|April 1, 2014|Trade Paperback|ISBN: 978-0-7642-1160-7
Powerful Retelling of the Story of Esther
In 1944, blond and blue-eyed Jewess Hadassah Benjamin feels abandoned by God when she is saved from a firing squad only to be handed over to a new enemy. Pressed into service by SS-Kommandant Colonel Aric von Schmidt at the transit camp of Theresienstadt in Czechoslovakia, she is able to hid behind the false identity of Stella Muller. However, in order to survive and maintain her cover as Aric's secretary, she is forced to stand by as her own people are sent to Auschwitz.
Suspecting her employer is a man of hidden depths and sympathies, Stella cautiously appeals to him on behalf of those in the camp. Aric's compassion gives her hope, and she finds herself battling a growing attraction for this man she knows she shosuld despise as an enemy.
Stella pours herself into her efforts to keep even some of the camp's prisoners safe, but she risks the revelation of her true identity with every attempt. When her bravery brings her to the point of the ultimate sacrifice, she has only her faith to lean upon. Perhaps God has placed her there for such a time as this, but how can she save her people when she unable to save herself?
My Review:
I believe the story description above is pretty self-explanatory as to what this story is about and don't really have much to add. I loved this book so much that I'm afraid of giving away too many details and don't want to spoil the story for other people.
Stella, or Queen Esther was an immensely brave woman who saved her people at great cost to herself but she never faltered in her belief that she would somehow accomplish this feat. I was glued to this book from the first page to the very last and read it in two sittings. If it hadn't been for interruptions from my dogs, I would have read it in one sitting.
I'm most surprised at the fact that FOR SUCH A TIME is Ms. Breslin's first novel for she writes as that of a well-seasoned author. I look forward to more novels in the future. Well-done!
