Three adult sisters return home to straighten out their own lives and support their mother who is fighting cancer. The girls are not particularly close and their personalities strongly reflect their birth order so they tend to drive each other crazy.
This refreshingly unsentimental story of family dynamics is told with warmth and humor by promising new novelist Eleanor Brown who will be at the Highlands Ranch Library on June 30.
Marsha
On the most basic level The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet by David Mitchell is the story of a young Dutch clerk, Jacob de Zoet, newly arrived on the artificially constructed port island of Dejima, off Nagasaki, Japan in 1799 as he tries to earn enough money so that when he returns to Holland he can marry his rich fiancée. But, as is to be expected with the masterful writing of two-time Booker short-list novelist Mitchell, the book is so much more than that. Overflowing with diverse characters and several storylines, this complex and engrossing novel shines with both detail and expanse, with nuance of characterization and universal themes.
Along with the earnest character of young Jacob we meet beautiful but scarred midwife Orito Aibagawa, with whom Jacob has become entranced, witty Dr. Marinus who takes Jacob under his wing after Jacob’s honesty leads to a demotion, and competent translator Uzaemon Ogawa, whose choice to defend honor leads to irreversible consequences. Accompanying this starring cast is a plethora of fully- realized supporting cast members — from devious magistrates to hardened sailors whose voices ring true in colorfully-portrayed characterizations. This novel is particularly hard to summarize as it rambles from historical romance to a critique of cultural clashes to a portrayal of picaresque rogues to a commentary on loyalty, honesty and commitment to a cause. Persist through the graphic first chapter. Don’t’ be swayed by the initial confusion of characters. Stay for the stunning, remarkable ride through a story of love, betrayal and sacrifice.
Laura
Bird Cloud is the name of Annie Proulx’s 640 acres in Wyoming, that includes cliffs, wetlands and a variety of birds, raptors, reptiles, mammals, and the North Platte River runs through it. She has lived all over the world, and in 2005, decided to call this home. This is the story of how she found the land, what it means to her, her family’s history, and how she built her home at Bird Cloud with the help of an architect, Harry Teague, and the James Gang. That said, this is written with the same exquisite use of language as The Shipping News (still my number one favorite book).
At times, reading Bird Cloud, I found myself saying – it is poetry: “The blue-white road twists like an overturned snake showing its belly…But it is a different world down by the river at Bird Cloud. On the north bank rears a four-hundred-foot cliff, the creamy caprock a crust of ancient coral. This monolith has been tempered by thousands of years of polishing wind, blowtorch sun, flood and rattling hair, sluice of rain.”
This book not only describes the wonder and hardship of building on an unforgiving land in winds, rain, heat and snow, it is, I think Annie Proulx’s story of how she has discovered herself, her work, her family, the land, and how that knowledge has molded her as a person – much like the land of Wyoming was molded by volcanic erruptions. Bird Cloud made me want to discover more about my family, the land that I call home and in some ways it made me want to move to Wyoming, rugged winters, quirky characters, and all. Annie Proulx has an amazing sense of the land and place. She is a national treasure, and if you haven’t read her work, here’s a great place to start.
Lisa
Alexandra is a desperate young woman who has disguised herself as a man and lit out to the gold mines of California. Her secret is a tough one to keep—especially after Alex strikes gold in a previously unremarkable mining town called Motherlode. Alex fights for her place among the crude miners, winning herself some friends as well as enemies- even a confused admirer. Swept along by events over which she is not really in control, Alex gets help from the town’s founder and self-appointed matriarch. Emaline is hardcore – a graduate of the school of hard knocks. She is a big woman with a bigger heart, and not much gets by her when it comes to the people of Motherlode, where everybody comes with a past. As for Alex, she discovers a lot more in Motherlode besides gold.
This is the first novel by Volmer, and it’s an engrossing story, rich with wonderfully colorful characters. The California gold rush years can easily be romanticized, and girls disguised as boys is nothing new, but here the gritty atmosphere of the place and time is never glossed over. I hope the author plans more well-told historicals that pull me in this way.
Deann
