Spring has arrived! It’s a perfect time to begin a new book (or two) and start a new reading adventure. This month I’ve covered several different genres and touched on some fun and exciting topics. I started with The Magnificent Lives of Marjorie Post, which is historical fiction, then moved on to The Paris Apartment, a page-turning mystery. Following my recent trend of including a classic on my reading list, I dove into Far From the Madding Crowd and remembered why Thomas Hardy is considered a master writer.
Whichever book you choose, it’s a wonderful time to find a cozy chair and begin to read! Enjoy!
Marjorie’s journey began with gluing Post Grape-Nut cereal boxes in her father’s barn as a young girl. Before turning thirty, she amassed millions of dollars, becoming the wealthiest woman in the United States. The Magnificent Lives of Marjorie Post shows that her life force, advocacy, passion, and adventurous spirit led to Marjorie Post’s stunning legacy, making history in the process.
The Christie Affair is told from the perspective of Nan O’Dea, the mistress of Agatha Christie’s husband. This is a new twist on Agatha Christie’s mysterious, real-life eleven-day disappearance in 1926 when her husband, Archie, asked her for a divorce. The story unfolds as if it were one of Christie’s mysteries, as one clue is added after another to the intricate web of love and revenge, betrayal and justice.
Beautiful Little Fools is a reimagining of The Great Gatsby from the perspective of the three women whose lives are unraveled by Jay Gatsby’s romantic obsession. In this version, each woman had a motive to kill Gatsby: Daisy Buchanan, Jordan Baker, and Catherine McCoy. This exploration of the “women of The Great Gatsby” will forever change how you see this American classic. The story is both heartbreaking and satisfying.
The Paris Apartment, address No. 12 Rue de Amants, is as beautiful and luxurious as eerie and sinister. The people that live in the building are all strange and unusual; they all have something to hide, and everyone knows something they’re not telling. The “missing person” is the plot point that hooks the reader when the tenant of Apartment Number Four disappears as his sister comes to visit him in Paris. The longer he’s missing, the deeper she digs.
Violeta tells her story in the form of a letter to her grandson, who she loves above all others. She recounts her devastating heartbreak and passionate affairs, times of both poverty and wealth, terrible loss, and immense joy. Violeta’s life is shaped by some of the most important events of history: the fight for women’s rights, the rise and fall of tyrants, and, ultimately, not one but two pandemics.
Eating to Extinction explains why everything we eat today is starting to taste the same wherever you are in the world. Over the past several decades, globalization has homogenized what we eat, and we risk the loss of traditional flavors, smells, and textures. Our food monoculture is a threat to our health. The source of much of the world’s food―seeds―is mainly controlled by just four corporations.
Far From the Madding Crowd deals with the harsh realities of a young woman who inherits a family farm in Victorian England, proves she can manage the farm on her own, and then finds herself unexpectedly wealthy and fighting off suitors. This portrayal of a successful female business owner is a challenge to Victorian assumptions about the role of women in public life.
Released in 1874 as a monthly serial in Cornhill Magazine, the novel has been dramatized several times, including a 1967 film Oscar nomination, a 1996 ballet, a 2000 musical, a 2006 opera, and a 2015 film.
In Case You Missed It: Here’s Sandy’s March reading list from 2019!
A great book can take you on faraway journeys, perhaps, even-to Oz. The March reading list offers a look at the world through women and female characters.
Finding Dorothy is the story behind the Wizard of Oz, the book that inspired the iconic film, told through the voice of the author L. Frank Baum’s wife, Maud. Written as fiction but based on research, it tells the familiar story of Dorothy’s love, loss, inspiration, and perseverance.
This is the story of Winston Churchill’s scandalous American mother, Jennie Jerome, one of history’s most remarkable women. The beautiful Lady Randolph Churchill lived an outrageously modern life filled with controversy, passion, tragedy, and triumph.
For centuries people have suffered pain, guilt, and judgment due to the Christian church’s toxic fixation on sex, the body, and physical pleasure. This Lutheran pastor calls for a new reformation, sharing stories and scriptures powerful enough to heal the ones who have been hurt and those who have done the hurting.
Golden Child is both beautiful and unsettling; a resoundingly human story of aspiration, betrayal, and love. This powerful and thought-provoking novel, set in Trinidad, follows the lives of a family as they navigate impossible choices about scarcity, loyalty, and love.
More than Words is a bittersweet, reflective novel of romance, grief, loss, and self-discovery. This tender novel is about a woman at the crossroads after her father’s death and caught between the love of two men and how we choose which life we are meant to live.
This novel chronicles the pain of an anorexia’s distorted thinking and intense fear of food in a riveting diary-like structure. Seven women live at 17 Swann Street, a residential treatment facility, and each chapter is told from the patient’s point of view with alternating chapters.
The Last Romantics is a beautifully written tribute to the love between four siblings, acompelling family saga that navigates us through 100 years of ever-changing relationships. Despite the title, this is not a romance novel but is about love in its many different forms.
