This book is narrated by Addie who is telling her life story to her grand daughter. It's a story of immigrants, coming of age and the way of life for young women coming up in Boston during the early 1900s. The glimpses of how life was like kept me fascinated. Hearing Addie tell her story in a no nonsense manner and how she came from sharing a bed in a tenement house to married to a lawyer and a professor is quite fascinating. This was a book club pick.
Brava, Valentine - Adriana Trigiani
This is the second book in a three book series that focuses on Valentine Roncalli , her business adventures, her love adventures and her crazy family. Sensing a theme here in my reading, this series is also a coming of age story. I picked the second book to share my love for this series because this is the one I loved the most. The first book is great and so is the final book, so go beginning to end! But the middle will keep you hooked.
I had heard so much about this book but at first I was leery because I am not typically a dystopian reader. But I've read a few lately and non have actually disappointed. I suggested this as a book club pick and we all loved it. It was actually a local pick for our library's community read awhile ago and I wish we had read it then because I believe the author actually came.
Anywhoo, this books premise is that the world has been infected by a horrible flu and almost everyone dies. Those that don't are forced into a world with no electricity, no gas, nothing modern. Thrown back into the world of survival, cults and danger everywhere. It follows this rag tag group of actors who perform Shakespeare around the area formerly known as Michigan. SO GOOD!
This book is loosely based off the Kitty Genovese murder in NY in the 1960s. It is fascinating. How many people heard/saw things of a brutal attack and murder of a neighbor and no one did anything. They all assumed someone else would do something or had done something or that they shouldn't get involved. This is a great book for discussion. Also a book club pick. We apparently had a stellar year of picks!
Also a book club pick! ;)
Description: When a white servant girl violates the order of plantation society, she unleashes a tragedy that exposes the worst and best in the people she has come to call her family. Orphaned while onboard ship from Ireland, seven-year-old Lavinia arrives on the steps of a tobacco plantation where she is to live and work with the slaves of the kitchen house. Under the care of Belle, the master's illegitimate daughter, Lavinia becomes deeply bonded to her adopted family, though she is set apart from them by her white skin.
Eventually, Lavinia is accepted into the world of the big house, where the master is absent and the mistress battles opium addiction. Lavinia finds herself perilously straddling two very different worlds. When she is forced to make a choice, loyalties are brought into question, dangerous truths are laid bare, and lives are put at risk
What are your favorite books of 2016? Did you read any great books with a book club that you think we might like to read this year? We are picking new books in March!
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