Dear Emmie Blue

After finishing Take What You Can Carry, I went back to Leadership in Turbulent Times. I couldn't focus on Abe Lincoln. I needed something lighter, just to take a break. I went in search of some good epistolatory fiction. You know, a novel told in letter or email format. And I wanted the subject to be simpler. And it had to be available as an e-book at the library. Somehow I came up with Dear Emmie Blue by Lia Louis. Not exactly what I was looking for, but I was intrigued.

Emeline Blue was 16 when she sent a balloon up to the sky with a note attached, writing about her sorry life. A few weeks later, across the water in France, Lucas Moreau finds the balloon, reads Emmie's note, and he reaches out to her. So starts one of the deepest types of friendships. At the start of the book, it's Lucas and Emmie's 30th birthday (Can you believe they share the same birthday? I mean what are the chances?). Lucas has a big question to ask Emmie. She think that Lucas is going to pop the question. You know the question! Not, "Will you be the best woman when I get married in a few months?" She didn't even know he had a girlfriend.

I wasn't sure how I felt about this book when I started to read. I sometimes struggle with chick lit, especially when the main character is a younger woman. That wasn't the case here, though. I'm not sure what held me back from really loving this book from the start. But as I read, I really enjoyed it. I liked the creative storylines and how those that required a lot of attention got a lot of attention and those that were important but didn't need a lot of attention were covered just the right amount. Nearly all the characters were so likeable, too. I can only think of three characters that I didn't like.

I loved Emmie's other friendships and relationships. As Emmie struggled through some things, I was totally rooting for her. 

I'm not sure for whom I would recommend Dear Emmie Blue, but I really enjoyed it!

Take What You Can Carry

 

Take What You Can Carry by Gian Sardar was an Amazon First Read that I selected either this month. I selected it simply because the main character was an aspiring photographer. I like photography. Hmmm.

Take What You Can Carry is a historical fiction novel, set during the late 1970s, mostly in Iraq. It focuses on the attacks against the Kurds. Sadly, I don't have much of a background with regards to that which, as a result, made part of the storyline a bit confusing.

Olivia is dating Delan. She encourages him to go home to Iraq when his cousin is getting married = and to bring her along. Delan has misgivings but Olivia has something to prove to herself, or at least she thinks she has something to prove to herself, so each time he expresses reservation, she pushes him a little bit more.

Neither Olivia nor Delan has had an easy life. Olivia lost her mother tragically at an early age. Delan has left his family behind in a world of danger, where he has to talk in code to his parents on the telephone because the phone lines are being bugged. It's one thing to move away with family. But I can't imagine moving away from family and not having the ability to communicate freely with them. At times, Olivia wonders if they can really be together since they cannot fully understand what the other has gone through in life. I found that an interesting concept to ponder.

A secondary storyline is that of Olivia's situation at work. She's a secretary at a newspaper but an she's also an aspiring photographer. She also feels she has something to prove with her photography. 

At a few points during my reading, I considered dropping the book. I just wasn't sure where it was heading. Even when I felt that way, though I did care to find out where it was heading. I stuck with it  and was rewarded in the end. The last third of the novel was my favorite part.

 

I recently re-read The Star and the Shamrock by Jean Grainger. It's the book my synagogue book club is discussing this month for a Holocaust Remembrance observance. I read it last spring and wanted to refresh my mind before leading the discussion (or participating in the discussion). I'd gotten it as an Amazon Prime First Read, enjoyed it and thought it would make for a good, slightly different discussion.

After I reread The Star and the Shamrock, I immediately purchased the sequel, The Emerald Horizon, and quickly devoured that one. I think I found The Emerald Horizon a more satisfying read and truthfully, I think that this book would make for a better discussion, but only if The Star and the Shamrock is read first.

In The Star and the Shamrock, Ariella Bannon puts her children, Liesl and Erich, on the Kindertransport out of Germany. She's connected with her missing husband's cousin in England. Cousin Elizabeth will take the children off the train and will care for them until Ariella is able to be with them again. The Star and the Shamrock is about Ariella's difficult decision and the life the children come to have with Elizabeth - first in England and eventually in  Northern Ireland. It's primarily the story of Elizabeth, Liesl and Erich. We don't learn much more about  Ariella or what is happening to her back in Germany.

The Emerald Horizon picks up where The Star and the Shamrock left off. The sequel has two storylines going. We learn about Ariella's life during the war as we continue to learn about the children's lives in Ireland at the end of the war. Ireland at the end of the war is a place of uncertainty for the children of the Kindertransport as they wonder the fate of their families left behind in their home countries and what that will mean for their futures. Berlin at the end of the war remains an extremely dangerous place. Germany might have surrendered but conditions are still grim and it is impossible to know who can be trusted.

Of course what drives Ariella forward is the determination to be reunited with her children. That is something I can definitely relate to.

Grainger keeps adding books to The Star and the Shamrock series. Currently, there are two more novels. Each was declared to be the last in the series so who knows what might be coming. The Hard Way Home is about Liesl's university years and The World Starts Anew which picks up Erich's story in the 1950s. I'm on the fence about whether I'll read on, but I would highly recommend the first two novels in the series.

The Girl They Left Behind

 

This month, my old New Jersey book club is discussing The Girl They Left Behind, Roxanne Veletzos historical fiction based on her family's story. There's a good possibility that they'll be meeting in person for the first time in over a year so I might not be able to join them virtually. However, I promised the woman who invited me back "into the club" that I would read the book and at a minimum, she and I could discuss.

This is a bit of history that I was really not familiar with. It starts during WW II in Romania, just as they are forced under Nazi rule. But the story continues past the end of the war, into a Bucharest controlled by the Soviets. I think that Veletzos paints the extremely dismal picture of what that was like. (After I read, I often talk about what I've read with my kids My son's first question was whether I'd ever been to Bucharest. No, I have not. He then described his experience there. Eastern Europe is quite different from Western Europe even now.)

The girl in the story is Natalia, a Jewish girl  left behind when her parents escaped the Nazis during the war. After a short stay in an orphanage, she is adopted by Despina and Anton, a well-to-do couple. She has a charmed life. Until the Nazis are out, the monarchy is out, and  the Soviets are in. Their lives become more and more dismal. Until Natalia is offered an opportunity which she is unable to turn down.

As I was reading, I guessed that this novel was based on a true story. The author's note at the end was very interesting.

This book has a lot to be discussed.

City of Girls

I'm sure I'm not alone in having read Elizabeth Gilbert's blockbuster memoir, Eat, Pray, Love and then never picking up an Elizabeth Gilbert novel. I'd heard mostly good things about City of Girls, I enjoyed Gilbert's earlier writing, so I requested this one from the library and waited. It sounded like something I'd like. 

Copied from goodreads.com: 

"Beloved author Elizabeth Gilbert returns to fiction with a unique love story set in the New York City theater world during the 1940s. Told from the perspective of an older woman as she looks back on her youth with both pleasure and regret (but mostly pleasure), City of Girls explores themes of female sexuality and promiscuity, as well as the idiosyncrasies of true love."

New York City, 1940s, theater, sex... I'm there!

I'm still not sure about how I feel about this novel. I did find the story very interesting. Once again, I enjoyed Gilbert's writing style. But... Did you see that "but" coming? This novel was way too long and felt very dragged out to me. That's what made it possible for me to put  aside City of Girls and pour through I Will Always Write Back in the middle of my reading. I knew I'd come back to it because I wanted to see where Gilbert was heading, but I needed a break. Was the novel too long? Perhaps. Did it include details that didn't move the story forward? Perhaps. Did I enjoy Gilbert's writing style? Yes. Was it very repetitive? Possibly but probably not. Was character development suburb because of how dragged out  it was? Yes. Would the characters have been more likeable had they not been so well developed? No... that's just silly. However, I didn't find many of the characters at all likeable, and the few that I did like weren't likeable until the final 25% of the novel.

Would I recommend City of Girls? I'm really not sure. There are so many great novels out there and this  was simply a good story.
 

How One Letter Changed Two Lives

Our granddaughter turns 13 tomorrow and for her birthday, I wanted to give her a meaningful book. I was thinking along the lines of celebrities writing to their younger selves, wondering if one of those might be appropriate for a young teen. I reached out to Renee's Reading Club on Facebook to ask for suggestions. What came back were older books, books that I read in my teens. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. Little Women. That kind of thing. Maybe if I had had a favorite book as a teen, but nope. That really wasn't what I was looking for. 

One title stood out. I Will Always Write Back: How One  Letter Changed Two Lives. It  stood out for a few reasons. I absolutely love letter writing and one of the author's was named Caitlin, spelled exactly the same way our granddaughter spells her name. Next, I read the description. It was about 7th grade Caitlin (our Caitlin is in 7th grade) participating in a pen pal project in school. I loved participating in pen pal projects in school. And... apparently I've had it on my "to be read" list for almost 5 years!

Before I decided about whether or not I was going to send her I Will Always Write Back by Caitlin Alifirenka, Martin Ganda and Liz Welch, I needed to read it. To make sure the material was appropriate, to make sure it was a good book, and so I'd be able to say "Yes, I've read it" when asked. 

What a wonderful book. When Caitlin's teacher proposes a pen pal project with foreign young people, Caitlin doesn't want a pen pal from Europe. She's been to Europe, has a cousin in Germany, thinks she understands the differences in the lives of German kids and kids like her in Pennsylvania. She decides to select somewhere exotic, like Zimbabwe. 

Martin is thrilled that he's only one of ten students in his class of 50 to receive a pen pal letter. He's tops in his class and that's why he got the first letter that was distributed in his class. Out of all the students in the project, Caitlin and Martin were the only two to still be writing a year later. Something between the two of them clicked.

At first, Caitlin assumes that Martin's life is similar enough to hers. Martin couldn't really imagine Caitlin's life in Pennsylvania, but he really tried to keep from Caitlin just how dismal his life was. Once Caitlin got an inkling of what his life might be like, she read old letters trying to see what clues he might have given her before.

Both Caitlin and Martin tell their stories. Other than Martin being an incredibly diligent student, their stories were somewhat typical. Until their friendship blossomed. Then their stories, individual and together, became remarkable.

I hope that our Caitlin enjoys reading this book as much as I did.