Reading in the Garden

Experimental Rabbits .  This historical fiction brings to light the medical experiments conducted on the prisoners of Ravensbrück, the all-female concentration camp in WWII Germany.   Two characters are based on actual people:  Herta Oberheuser was one of the doctors who performed the experimental surgeries on the ladies who became known as “Rabbits,” because they were medical guinea pigs and for the fact that afterwards they could barely walk and had to hop around.  The other real person was Caroline Ferriday, a New York City philanthropist who sent aid to French orphans and later helped the “Rabbits” obtain medical treatments years after the war.  This book was unnerving to read yet so engrossing it was hard to put down.  Very well written. Further Non-fiction Reading About the Holocaust: Night  by Elie Wiesel  In Our Hearts We Were Giants   by Yehuda Koren and Eilat Negev When Time Stopped by Ariana Neu...

  Bonanza of Books by Black Authors That Are the Bomb  In a quick tribute for Black History Month, I’m listing  SOME OF MY   FAVORITE  READS  by black authors. Fiction   My Sister, the Serial Killer by  Oyinkan Braithwaite    The Secret Lives of Baga Segi’s Wives by Lola Shoneyin   The Seasons of Beento Blackbird by Akosua Busia   The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead – Pulitzer Prize Winner Wench   by Dolen Perkins-Valdez How Stella Got Her Groove Back by Terry McMillan Non-Fiction Born a Crime by Trevor Noah – Memoir A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah - Memoir Left to Tell: One Woman’s Story of Surviving the Rwandan Genocide by Immacul é e Ilibagiza - Memoir Slave: My True Story by Mende Nazer – Memoir The Last Black Unicorn  by Tiffany Haddish – Memoir Memorial Drive by Natasha Threthewey – Memoir Beneath the Tamarind Tree by Isha Sesay  Classics: Roots by Alex Haley Their Eyes Were Watching God b...

  Impossible, Forbidden Love .    Goosebumps! This is more than a story about German occupation in the Channel Islands during WWII—it’s also about the impossible, forbidden love of a German officer and a Jewish woman trapped in a dangerous world where there are no true winners. Based on a true story, they are forced to be enemies and must go to great lengths to hide their love.  Was it all for nothing? This book revived my desire to visit the Channel Islands.  I first dreamt of visiting it after reading one of my favorite books of all time— The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows .   Now more than ever I want to see the islands where the defenseless population was taken over by Germans, the place where the Organization Todt used slave labor to complete their engineering projects, the place where characters like Hedy, Dorothea, Juliet and Dawsey found a place in my heart.    Guernsey I...

  The Absolutely  Irresistible  Diary of a Part-Time Indian  I fell in love with this book from page one! A poor, hungry, sickly, bullied fourteen-year-old Spokane Indian boy with a stutter and a lisp tries to muddle through his first year at an all-white high school.  Junior chooses to navigate two different worlds when he leaves his dreary life on the Indian reservation to attend school in the privileged white town of Reardan. Despite, or maybe because of all the tragedy in his life, Junior faces each day with an astute, sharp-as-a-blade wit and a soaring spirit.     His alluring narration is heartbreaking, funny, sad, and uplifting. It covers a rainbow of emotions.  I’m so glad I finally read this celebrated, charming young adult novel that won a National Book Award!    Here are some lines from the book that really grabbed me:   “He couldn’t beat me up with his old man fists, but he could hurt me with his old man w...

Jenna Bush Hager’s 2020 Book Club Jan – Dear Edward by Ann Napolitano Feb – The Girl with the Louding Voice by Abi Dar é March – Writers & Lovers by Lily King April – Valentine by Elizabeth Wetmore May – All Adults Here by Emma Straub June – A Burning by Megha Majumdar July – Friends and Strangers by J. Courtney Sullivan Aug – The Comeback by Ella Berman Sept – Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi Oct – Leave the World Behind by Rumaan Alam Nov – White Ivy by Susie Yang Dec – The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison Reese Witherspoon’s 2020 Book Club Jan – Such A Fun Age by Kiley Reid Feb – The Scent Keeper by Erica Baumeister March – The Jetsetters by Amana Eyre Ward April – Untamed by Glennon Doyle (Non-Fiction) May – The Henna Artist by Alka Joshi    June/July – The Guest List by Lucy Foley June/July – I’m Still Here by Austin Channing Brown (Non-Fiction) Aug – Everything Inside  by Edwidge Danticat Aug YA – You Should See Me in a Crown by Leah Johnson Sept – Th...

An Unlikely but Lovely Female Friendship  I love this story of two women with opposite personalities who go on an adventure where they not only learn more about each other, but also about themselves.  It’s 1950 England when Miss Benson finally snaps and decides to follow her dream of finding the illusive golden soft-winged flower beetle in New Caledonia.  When she puts in an ad for an assistant, she never pictured Enid Pretty, a very talkative, vivacious woman with a pink suit and impractical sandals with pom-poms. Against the odds, they end up forming an unbreakable, concrete-strong bond.   A heartwarming female friendship book at its best! If you like this book by Rachel Joyce, be sure to check out The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry. Other Female Friendship Books - Angry Housewives Eating Bon Bons by Lorna Landvik - Firefly Lane by Kristin Hannah - The Floribama Ladies’ Auxiliary and Sewing Circle by Lois Battle - Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle St...

   2020 Reading List  I read a lot of books in a year (well, by my standards anyway.) I also work, babysit my grandkids, bake a lot of bread, garden, and tend to those tedious things in life that suck up my time—which explains why I just can’t review all the books I read.  Some wonderful ones fail to get a mention and that’s just not right.   So before putting this remarkable year of 2020 behind us, I thought I’d give a rundown on all the books that I’ve had the pleasure of reading this year—books that allowed me to take my mind off of the pandemic and politics.   In reading order:   The War That Saved My Life  by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley – Mid-kids’ book, ages 9-12 –  An unwanted girl with a crippled foot is sent away to the British countryside with her brother during WWII. There, she learns to trust again when she finds people who truly care about her. Great book about overcoming adversity and good introduction to one aspect of WWII....