If this is your introduction into the world of Ruth Reichl, you are in for a sumptuous treat. Her books, whether memoir or fiction, bring the senses alive. This book is a modern-day fairy tale. The reader is transported to a world of taste, smell, and an insider’s look of a Paris we all wish we could magically inhabit.
This novel is an absolute page turner. It encompasses many of the elements of what we think of as compelling historical fiction—context, a crime, a trial, a cover up, a disavowal of the rights of women. In its way, it is also a love story. It's also a tribute to women in history whose lives and achievements are left out of the history books. The protagonist is Martha Ballard, a real midwife and healer who lived and worked in colonial America. The seeds of this story were formed when the author, Ariel Lawhon, discovered her diaries.
This is a great summer read. A coming of age dramedy about friends, lovers, and an Ireland steeped in chaos. The book is fully inhabited by a lovable, yet flawed twenty-something trying to figure it all out. It's all there— crisis, humor, confusion, love.
Ana Turns is loosely based on the Mrs. Dalloway concept. A day in the life of a woman reckoning with her past and present in order to live a richer future. Although the most notable tribute was Michael Cunningham’s, Pulitzer prize winning THE HOURS, written in 1998, in many ways, this story is a fresh take on the Virginia Woolf story. With grace, perception of what makes us tick and originality, this book was a wonderful read. It's Ana’s sixtieth birthday. And what are birthdays for (especially the milestones) but to think about the rest of our lives. Her life has been complicated and she understands that if she is to find happiness in her future, she must make peace with her past. Unlike Clarissa, she did not plan her party, which may be part of her overall problem.
This is a story of sisters like no other. As anyone who has ever had a sister, known someone with a sister, a read a book about sisters, it is one of the most complex relationships. This book takes the relationship into unusual territory. A story of sisters like no other. This book takes the relationship into unusual territory. To give you the enticing flavor of the story, this is the novel's first line, "My father, James Witherspoon, is a bigamy." It is a fascinating story of deception, family's complicity and the girls caught in the middle.
Ask Again, Yes could be said to be an absorbing twist on the Romeo and Juliet story. The basic premise is there—two feuding families (with good reason) not wanting their children to see each other, let alone become romantically involved. Wound into this is the American dream story that may or may not have gone awry.
Reader’s Cafe 