The King's Witch by Tracy Borman (FIC Bor)

It is 1603 and Queen Elizabeth I has passed away.  With her successor, James I of Scotland, on his way to be crowned, Lady Frances, a favorite of the old queen, returns to the family home of Longford.  Frances is delighted to be away from the intrigues of court and home once again.

Times are changing, though, and Longford isn't as peaceful and safe as it used to be.  The king is determined to rid the kingdom of witches and Frances' skill with using herbs to heal puts her squarely in the suspicious category.  When her ambitious uncle secures a place for her as a maid to the king's young daughter, Frances finds herself reluctantly back at court.  There she finds that she loves her young charge but has developed a new enemy in the Lord of the Privy Seal, Lord Cecil, who has the king's ear.

Dissatisfaction with James grows as his intolerance towards Catholics grows. Despite herself, Frances finds herself drawn into the plotting of what would become known as the Gunpowder Plot - an attempt to blow up Parliament with the King, his two sons, and all of Parliament inside.  Will her love for Tom Wintour, a lawyer she has come to know and love, help her or hurt her?

This book covered a time in history that has always been somewhat confusing to me.  Beginning in 1603 and ending in early 1606, it helped me understand what happened after Elizabeth died and even helped me understand why Charles I (the youngest son of James I and his heir) was eventually executed. It also showed me just how little power women had (and sometimes made me wonder if things had changed all that much.)  Lady Frances is likable and courageous and I was rooting for her all the way through the book.

Natural Causes by Barbara Ehrenreich 306.9 EHR

          At the beginning of this century I read Ehrenreich's book Nickel and Dimed.  It made an impression on me that remains today.  So when I saw this book I immediately checked it out.
     A short summary of the book is the subtitle : An Epidemic Of Wellness, The Certainty of Dying and Killing Ourselves To Live Longer.
     I loved the first chapter which she titled Midlife Revolt.  She explains how her attitude toward annual exams, screenings and other things suggested by the medical community has changed.  Her explanation made total sense to me (although I might be in the minority).  Her second chapter is "Rituals of Humiliation" and I am sure that all women can relate to what Ehrenreich has written.
    I will admit that there were parts of the book that became a bit too scientific and I did some skimming.
     All in all I enjoyed the book and gave me a lot of things to think about at this stage of of my life.

Accidental Brothers 306.875 Seg

    A fascinating book!   Nature vs. nurture is always an interesting  question to ponder.  There is more to ponder after reading this book.  Although there are many examples of identical twins being separated at birth and then reunited later in life in the book, the main focus is on two sets of identical twins born in  Colombia in 1988.  Due to an unknown slip-up, one boy in each set was switched and both would be brought up as fraternal twins.  One set of twins grew up in a city while the home of the other set was in a very remote village (150 miles apart) where life required a lot of work and effort.
      The twins didn't find out about the truth until they were 25.  It was a woman who was friends with one of the twins who just couldn't believe she had mistaken a stranger to be a good friend.
         A very readable book about how families can be disrupted by a mistake in a nursery decades before.

 

Now That You Mention It by Kristan Higgins FIC Hig

           Nora Stuart has a pretty good life.  She is a Doctor, she's living with her boyfriend and she has a great dog named Boomer.  As often happens in real life, Nora will find that her dog is more dependable and trustworthy than the boyfriend.  When she is hit by a van she is crushed to awaken to see her boyfriend flirting with the doctor while she is trying to figure out if she is dead or alive.  Turns out she is alive but knows that recovering from her injuries at her apartment is not going to be an option.  So reluctantly she decides she will return to her hometown of Scupper Island Maine.  It isn't a decision she takes lightly but she has no choice.  It was a place where she was bullied for being fat.  She left and had no intentions of going back.
      So now she is back and living with her mother and sharing a bedroom with her niece Poe.  Poe is there because her mother (Nora's sister) is across the country in prison.
       This was a nice entertaining book.   A little romance, a bit of mystery, some quirky characters, a past that will make you sad and best of all the dog is alive and well at the end of the story!!  (spoiler alert- the bird isn't).

Beneath a Scarlet Sky by Mark Sullivan FIC Sul

       Although this is a work of fiction it is based on a true story of Pino Lella during World War II.  Pino lived in Italy and had all of the interests of a normal teenager - girls, cars and music.  His family is a close one.  His life changes drastically when his home is bombed by the Allies.  He and his brother are sent to Casa Alpina where they can be safe and continue their studies.  He becomes part of a group helping Jews escape over the Alps.
      As the war gets worse his parents insists he enlist in the German army to give him cover.  Because of his background with cars and his language abilities he is recruited to be a personal driver for General Hans Leyers, a high ranking officer for Hitler. Because of his love for Italy and his hatred for the Nazis he begins spying and sharing info with the underground.
      This book has everything!  There is romance, history and lots of tension.  A wonderful read.

The Bookshop of Yesterdays by Amy Meyerson FIC Mey

I think I have loved every book I've ever read which has to do with a bookshop!  This one is no exception.  When Miranda Brooks thinks back to her childhood it is always filled with wonderful memories of trips to Prospero Books which was owned by her uncle Billy.  It wasn't just the books that she loved.  He also shared with her his love of riddles and he set up many scavenger hunts for her.  On her 12th birthday there is an argument between Billy and her mother and he is no longer in her life despite her attempts to contact him.

Miranda grows up and moves across the country.  She has a teaching job she loves and is in a serious relationship.  Her life takes an unexpected turn when she finds out that Billy has died and left his bookshop to her.  She returns home and discovers that Billy has left her the ultimate scavenger hunt.

I loved the characters and the mystery that surrounded the falling-out between her mother and her beloved uncle.

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The Map of Salt and Stars by Jennifer Zeynab Joukhadar FIC Jou

It is 2011 and Nour's Syrian-American family is still mourning the loss three months ago of her father who died as a result of cancer.  At 11, Nour is the youngest of her siblings and sees and hears the world in colors, a condition known as synesthesia.  Her mother's angry voice is red; she misses her father's caramel and brown voice.

As their finances suffer, Nour's mother decides to take her family back to Syria and family there.  They settle in Homs, a city initially far away from the fighting in the rest of the country.  But when a bomb hits their neighborhood, destroying their home and severely injuring her oldest sister, Huda, Nour and her family become refugees.

As they work their way through Syria on their way to safety, Nour and her family face unknown challenges.  But always, Nour remembers the many stories her Baba shared with her before he died, particularly the story of Rawiya - a twelfth century girl who disguised herself as a boy in order to apprentice herself to a famous mapmaker.

I won't lie.  This book was difficult for me to read.  But oh so rewarding in the end.  Written from Nour's point-of-view, we only know what she sees and understands. I felt so much empathy for Nour that it was hard for me to deal with the many challenges she and her family faced as they fled their home. 

If you are at all interested in the reasons people flee their homeland, this book will help you understand just a little bit of what they go through.

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