I have been utilizing Paperbackswap.com a lot lately and have a lot of new books on my shelf.
You're on Your Own (But I'm Here if You Need Me): Mentoring Your Child During the College Years, by Marjorie Savage
My oldest child leaves for college in August, and the sheer logistics are keeping me from obsessing on how much I'm going to miss her. I'm a reader and so when I face an issue I often turn to help from books. This one was recommended on the college's web site section for parents. This is now a must-read with everything else taking a backseat.
Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, by Lisa See
The same friend who recommended Kathryn Stockett's The Help, also recommended this book in the next breath. Since I loved The Help, I'm going to give this a try. I haven't read about China since the last Amy Tan that I read, which was years ago, so this is definitely outside my normal range.
A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian, by Marina Lewycka
I've been hearing good things about this book, so got it and started it right away--it's about a woman who must reconcile with her estranged sister in order to keep their aged father from going off the deep end when he falls for a younger woman in search of a green card.
Perdita: The Literary, Theatrical, Scandalous Life of Mary Robinson, by Paula Byrne
I loved Paula Byrne's wonderful book Jane Austen and the Theatre, and found this when I was Googling on that. If Snow Flower and the Secret Fan is outside my usual reading, Perdita is smack dab in the middle of it--regency, biography, theater. It's a hat trick! Here's what Amazon hooked me with: "...darling of the London stage, mistress to the most powerful men in England, feminist thinker, and bestselling author."
March, by Geraldine Brooks
I loved Brooks' Year of Wonders until the ending, which I considered a train wreck of an ending, but since I am finally going to read Little Women this year, I thought I would follow that up with a reading of March, which chronicles the girls' father's adventures during the Civil War.
I've owned Snow Flower for a while. It has such a beautiful cover! One of these days I will actually get around to reading it. I added March to my library queue. It sounds quite interesting. You tend to forget about the father during the book, or maybe it's just that when I was younger I didn't really understand where he was and didn't pay as much attention to that part. It was on a much later reading that I realized he was fighting in the Civil War!
ReplyDeleteI bought March too after reading Year of Wonders, but haven't gotten to it yet. Perdita has been added to my wishlist!
ReplyDeleteI hope you enjoy your new additions!
The ending of "March" will not disappoint. In fact, I was having a hard time with the book (totally put a kibosh on my image of the father in "Little Women"). But I really liked it by the end.
ReplyDeleteMarch is good, although I didn't think it was as good as Year of Wonders, but then, I'm not familiar with Little Women. I love A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian - hope you enjoy it!
ReplyDeleteI have March on my shelf too - I read a non-fiction book by Geraldine Brooks earlier this year and am a big fan of Little Women so I think this one will be a winner for me!
ReplyDeleteI absolutely agree with the ending of Year of Wonders -- I didn't think it fit the rest of the book AT ALL. My library book group recently read People of the Book, which I mostly liked. Except for the ending! But I really loved one of her NF books, Nine Parts of Desire, which is all about different Islamic women. Really worth reading.
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