Hello everyone,
with wintery weather all around us, our thoughts still turn inwards. So let me start this week's recommendations with two books about people who face difficult experiences in their youth and spend their life seeking and offering redemption.
You might have heard of them already...
The first one is by Alice Walker The Color Purple(winner of the 1983 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the National Book Award for Fiction)
Taking place mostly in rural Georgia, the story focuses on female black life in the 1930s in the southern United States, addressing numerous issues including their exceedingly low position in American social culture.
Perhaps something for the next book club discussion?
The second one is by Khaled Hosseini The Kite Runner.
The Kite Runnertells the story of Amir, a young boy from Kabul, whose closest friend is Hassan, his father's young Hazara servant. The story is set against a backdrop of tumultuous events, from the fall of Afghanistan's monarchy through the Soviet invasion, the exodus of refugees to Pakistan and the United States, and the rise of the Taliban regime. It is gripping story of a boyhood friendship destroyed by jealousy, fear, and the kind of ruthless evil that transcends mere politics.
Or if you're more romantically inclined and prefer shorter readings, why not try an Anthology of Love Letters, edited by Antonia Fraser?
This anthology has been compiled from the love letters of such famous people as Henry VIII, Zelda Fitzgerald, Keats and Napoleon. The fully illustrated collection also contains lesser-known but equally poignant correspondents, including a soldier in the trenches in World War I.
If, on the other hand, it is suspense and a twist at the end of a good read that you prefer, then go ahead and read Stone's Fall byIain Pears.
John Stone, a man so wealthy that in the years before World War One he was able to manipulate markets, industries and indeed whole countries and continents, has been found dead in mysterious circumstances. His beautiful young widow commissions a journalist to carry out an unusual bequest in his will but as he begins his research he soon discovers a story far more complex than he could have ever imagined...
As the story moves backwards through time, from London in 1909 to Paris in 1809, before concluding in Venice in 1867, the mystery of John Stone's life and loves begins to unravel. The result is a spellbinding novel that is both a quest for the truth, a love story that spans decades and a compelling murder mystery.
And to leave you with my musings of the weekend:
VITAE SUMMA BREVIS SPEM NOS VETAT INCOHARE LONGHAM
(The brief sum of life forbids us the hope of enduring long - Horace)
They are not long, the weeping and the laughter,
Love and desire and hate:
I think they have no portion in us after
We pass the gate.
They are not long, the days of wine and roses:
Out of a misty dream
Our path emerges for a while, then closes
Within a dream.
Ernest Dowson
I remain your faithful Librarian
anna
with wintery weather all around us, our thoughts still turn inwards. So let me start this week's recommendations with two books about people who face difficult experiences in their youth and spend their life seeking and offering redemption.
You might have heard of them already...
The first one is by Alice Walker The Color Purple(winner of the 1983 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the National Book Award for Fiction)
Taking place mostly in rural Georgia, the story focuses on female black life in the 1930s in the southern United States, addressing numerous issues including their exceedingly low position in American social culture.
Perhaps something for the next book club discussion?
The second one is by Khaled Hosseini The Kite Runner.
The Kite Runnertells the story of Amir, a young boy from Kabul, whose closest friend is Hassan, his father's young Hazara servant. The story is set against a backdrop of tumultuous events, from the fall of Afghanistan's monarchy through the Soviet invasion, the exodus of refugees to Pakistan and the United States, and the rise of the Taliban regime. It is gripping story of a boyhood friendship destroyed by jealousy, fear, and the kind of ruthless evil that transcends mere politics.
Or if you're more romantically inclined and prefer shorter readings, why not try an Anthology of Love Letters, edited by Antonia Fraser?
This anthology has been compiled from the love letters of such famous people as Henry VIII, Zelda Fitzgerald, Keats and Napoleon. The fully illustrated collection also contains lesser-known but equally poignant correspondents, including a soldier in the trenches in World War I.
If, on the other hand, it is suspense and a twist at the end of a good read that you prefer, then go ahead and read Stone's Fall byIain Pears.
John Stone, a man so wealthy that in the years before World War One he was able to manipulate markets, industries and indeed whole countries and continents, has been found dead in mysterious circumstances. His beautiful young widow commissions a journalist to carry out an unusual bequest in his will but as he begins his research he soon discovers a story far more complex than he could have ever imagined...
As the story moves backwards through time, from London in 1909 to Paris in 1809, before concluding in Venice in 1867, the mystery of John Stone's life and loves begins to unravel. The result is a spellbinding novel that is both a quest for the truth, a love story that spans decades and a compelling murder mystery.
And to leave you with my musings of the weekend:
VITAE SUMMA BREVIS SPEM NOS VETAT INCOHARE LONGHAM
(The brief sum of life forbids us the hope of enduring long - Horace)
They are not long, the weeping and the laughter,
Love and desire and hate:
I think they have no portion in us after
We pass the gate.
They are not long, the days of wine and roses:
Out of a misty dream
Our path emerges for a while, then closes
Within a dream.
Ernest Dowson
I remain your faithful Librarian
anna
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