June Reading

Saturday 28th June 2014

It's been harder to find time to sit and read this month, I think because school is out and our routines are all different.  This is what I've been reading this month.

The Forest Feast by Erin Gleeson is a vegetarian cookbook.  I was first attracted to the beautiful cover of this book. The book is full of colorful photography, rustic settings and pretty artwork.  Each recipe has several photographs, which for a visual person like me, is perfect.  There are lots of recipes I want to try.

We Make Dolls by Jenny Doh features 23 dolls made by established doll makers.  There are patterns, tips and detailed instructions.  It's an eclectic collection.  I like to read and learn about the processes of other crafters.  

Sarah's Key by Tatiana De Rosnay.  I picked this up at our library in the book club section.  I'd seen it at the book shop but wasn't sure I wanted to read another war story.  This story was very sad but I'm glad I read it.  It explores the links between two families, one living in present day Paris and renovating an apartment that in 1942 was occupied by a Jewish family.  In the summer of 1942 the Jewish family, along with hundreds of others, was rounded up by the French Police, on German orders and sent to a camp before being sent to Auschwitz.  The little daughter of the family, Sarah, escapes from the first camp.  The book focuses on Sarah's story and that of the wife in present day Paris.  The story is heartbreaking, desperate and hopeful.  I will remember it for a long time.  It is much more than a war story.

Love In The Time Of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez.  This is my Book Club book for this month.  It is a book I've often seen and added to my mental list of books to be read.  I'm about ⅔ of the way through but I can't say I'm loving it.  I'm irritated by the main characters and I don't find the situations very plausible.  It will be interesting to see what the others in my Book Club think!

Orphan Train by Christina Baker Kline.  Orphan Train introduces us to two women growing up in two different generations.  It is one of those books that goes back and forth which can sometimes be really confusing but not in this case.  Molly is a teen growing up in the foster care system in the present day.  Vivian is an old lady who as a child and an orphan was sent with other orphans on a train trip to various cities in the hope of finding a family that would take her in.  The two form an unlikely friendship while sorting through the "stuff" in Vivian's attic.  At times it is hard to read their sad stories but throughout there is a thread of hope and goodness.  I found it hard to put down.

Notes From A Small Island by Bill Bryson.  After living in England for nearly 20 years Bill Bryson and his family are about to move back to the U.S.   In this book Bryson writes about traveling around Britain on a "farewell tour".  His writing makes me laugh out loud and I suppose as an Ex-Pat Brit I really appreciate his insights!  

The Secrets Of Mary Bowser by Lois Leveen.  I am about ⅓ of the way through this book and am loving it.  Mary and her mother were slaves belonging to the Van Lew family in Richmond, Virginia.  The daughter of the family frees them and sends Mary to Philadelphia to school.  Mary's mother chooses to remain working for the family because her husband is still a slave belonging to a different family.  Because of a law in Virginia, Mary as a freed slave, cannot return to her family without risking being captured and sold back into slavery.  So far I have been reading about Mary's time at school and her struggles to find her place in a town where there are still pockets of cruel racism.  This is another book that I can't put down!