Description: Pierre and Agnes marry for love against the wishes of his parents and the family patriarch, the tyrannical industrialist Julien Hardelot, provoking a family feud which cascades down the generations. This is Balzac or The Forsyte Saga on a smaller, more intimate scale, the bourgeoisie observed close-up, with Némirovsky’s characteristically sly humour and clear-eyed compassion. Full of drama and heartbreak, and telling observations of the devastating effects of two wars on a small town and an industrial family, Némirovsky is at the height of her powers. Taut, evocative and beautifully paced, the novel points out with heartbreaking detail and clarity how close those two wars were, how history repeated...
One of the best of 2011…
Originally posted January, 2011 This book completely took my breath away. I was in love with Laura Hillenbrand’s Seabiscuit, but this one eclipses it—and then some. I downloaded this to my Kindle and thanked God I had it during a 16-hour roadtrip with my family. I was raptured by the book from page one. I read during each five-minute drive between errands and for seven solid hours at a time. The tale of these men and what they endured during the war. Hillenbrand creates characters that seem larger than life—characters that might not even fly if this was a “fiction” book. But the truth behind each chapter makes it all...
War Horse – Beyond the Pages and the Movie
Disclaimer. I do not regularly review movies. In this case, I make an exception. In 1983, author Michael Morpurgo wrote a sweeping saga for a young audience of WWI told through the perspective of a horse plucked from a Devon farm and following that horse’s journey through the battlefields of France. In 2007, it was adapted for the stage and as of December 25, 2011 the movie adaptation directed by Steven Spielberg arrives in theaters. I was blessed with the opportunity to see an advanced screening. I tore through the book the night before (I always read the book first if I can help it.) Wow. Wow. Wow. Between the book...
Book Review: Wonderland Creek
Description: Alice Grace Ripley lives in a dream world, her nose stuck in a book. But happily-ever-after life she’s planned on suddenly falls apart when her boyfriend, Gordon, breaks up with her, accusing her of living in a world of fiction instead of the real world. Then to top it off, Alice loses her beloved job at the library because of cutbacks due to the Great Depression. Fleeing small-town gossip, Alice heads to the mountains of eastern Kentucky to deliver five boxes of donated books to the library in the tiny coal-mining village of Acorn. Dropped off by her relatives, Alice volunteers to stay for two weeks to help the...
Remember the 7th of December
There are events throughout history that we must stop and remember. These are the days we need to take a few moments and put things into perspective. Seventy years ago, thousands died at a relatively unknown harbor. Seventy years ago, a nation looked at horror of another country’s actions. Seventy years ago, a nation united. I’m currently reading December 1941 by Craig Shirley – a 500-page book that looks at all thirty-one days of December 1941 and how those days changed America forever. On December 1st, 1941, America was still in the remnants of the Great Depression but things were starting to look up. Newspaper headlines were flooded with war...