The Life She Was Given by Ellen Marie Wiseman

From one of my favorite authors comes the story of Lily, a young woman who has never left her attic. She is kept in the attic by her mother who says that people would be afraid of Lily if they were to see her deformity, so she must stay hidden for her own protection. 

One evening, Lily sees, from her attic window, a traveling circus setting up in a field near her house. She marvels at this scene of which she has never been a part of but has seen in books and is shocked when, later that evening, her mother comes to the attic, takes Lily out of the attic and down to the field and sells Lily to the owner of the circus.

Beginning as a side show attraction, and treated quite badly by both the circus folk and the jeering circus attendees, Lily is at first surprised and saddened by the brutal turn that her life has taken, just another prison much like her attic, but she eventually makes friends, learns her way around and discovers a rare ability to work with animals, especially the many horses that are trained and part of the menagerie. Working with a boy named Cole and his 2 elephants, Lily soon becomes the big star attraction of the circus... until everything changes after the brutality of some of the circus people culminates in a cruel and terrible deed. 

(Please Note - this terrible scene does include an awful and heartbreaking depiction of animal cruelty that is quite hard to stomach, but is in fact historically accurate to some hideous circus events of the past and therefor should never be forgotten so as to never be repeated.)

Many decades later, a woman named Julia is home at her family estate (after many years away) that she has just inherited and discovers a hidden and locked attic bedroom in which she finds a stack of newspaper clippings about a depression era traveling circus. Not having a close relationship with her family, she is curious and starts to research these strange revelations.

Bouncing between Lily's and Julia's stories and era's, we finally discover their connection which had been hidden for so many years through so many family secrets.

Book therapy.

 

The beautifully illustrated Little Miss Spider by David Kirk

This was one of my youngest daughters' favorite children's story, and one that I could re-read to her as often as she liked without getting bored.

Filled with beautiful and colorful art work (too nice to simply call drawings) and with a fun rhyme, this is the first story in the "Little Miss Spider" series (all of the others that I have read as also very well done). 

This story begins with Little Miss Spider hatching from an egg.... but she can't find her mother! She goes in search of her mom and on the way meets many other insects, one in particular, a beetle named Betty, who offers to help her find her mom. She flies the little spider all over in search and together the have several adventures. But will Little Miss Spider ever find her mother??

Fiction heals the damage done by reality to your brain every day. :)

 

This Tender Land, an epic novel by William Kent Krueger

Minnesota, 1932. Orphaned brothers, 12-year-old Odie O'Banion and his older brother Albert, live at the Lincoln Indian Training School. Run by cruel people, it was a difficult and unhappy place to live.

Together, they rescue another orphan, a little girl named Emily, and along with their best friend Mose, they run away to find a better life by jumping into a canoe and heading down the Minnesota River in hopes of finding their long lost Aunt Julia.

During their travels, the encounter many adventures such as being kidnaped and forced to work on a farm, joining a religious traveling revival group where they befriend Sister Eve, only to discover that she is a fraud. Next they wound up in a camp full of people down on their luck, living in poverty, during the depression. There, Odie falls in love with a girl named Maybeth, and becomes friends with her struggling family. When Maybeth and her family move on, Odie is heartbroken and they continue their journey but needing funds, they end up working in a restaurant for a woman named Gertie. When Odie decides that it is time to continue the  quest to find their aunt, Albert and Emily decide that they are happy and want to stay. Sad but determined, Odie continues on by himself. When he finally finds his aunt, he is shocked to discover not only that she runs a brothel, but she is actually their mother, not their aunt.

Will they ever be reunited and find the home they had all been looking for?

Full of great characters, lush settings, and wild adventures, this is a captivating story.

New books. Old books. Books I've read. Books still unread. I love them all!

 

Caps for Sale, a story by Esphyr Slobodkina

This was a favorite book of mine as a kid, and reading it later in life to my own kids, I discovered a new appreciation for it.

It does not have a "lesson" or "moral". It is simply a cute, entertaining tale with beautiful illustrations.

It is the story of a peddler who sold caps. He has a unique way of carrying his merchandise, he wears ALL of the caps all at once upon his head in a tall stack and steadily and carefully walks around offering his caps for sale.

One day, he stops under a shady tree to take a rest and falls asleep. When he wakes up, his caps are gone! While asleep, a bunch of monkey quietly descended from the tree and took the caps from the peddler and put them upon their own heads.

Will he ever get them back?? Read and see....

 

The Duke and I by Julia Quinn

The Duke and I is set in the Regency era of upper class London. It is the first novel in the Bridgerton series by Julia Quinn. I read it recently because there was so much buzz about this series, likely because it was just made into a netfix series. I don't have netflix, but decided to read the novel instead.

Not normally a consumer of "romance" fiction, I was glad that I gave this one a go. Full of witty dialogue, decadent and lush locations and, yes, a love story, I was completely immersed in this book.

This is the story of Simon Basset, the Duke of Hastings, who has recently taken the title from his father, for whom he feels nothing but contempt. He is expected to marry and produce an heir to his title and finds many single women of marriageable age being thrown at him by eager mothers. Having been the only child of a brutal man, he is not at all interested in marriage, let alone having a family.

This is the story of Daphne Bridgerton, the fourth child in her large, gregarious and loving family. Her mother believes that it is time for Daphne to marry, but while everyone likes Daphne and she is quite popular, she doesn't seem to be "marriage material" and finds herself only being propositioned by the types of men that she could not even slightly envision marrying. She is content to wait for the right man, while her several brothers are overbearing and over-protective and feel that they have a voice in the matter of whom she choses to marry.

Daphne and Simon meet, in a rather comical way, then discover that Simon is dear friends of her brothers. As they talk and get to know each other, they become fast friends They realize that they are both in the same position of being expected to marry and being paraded in front of the opposite sex by parents greedy to marry their children off.  

This leads to an idea. What if Simon and Daphne pretended to be engaged so that all of these folks would stop pestering them? It worked... until an incident occurred that meant they had to marry very quickly. 

This "pretend" marriage is suddenly quite real.

I must say again that while I am not a big fan of romances, I thoroughly enjoyed his book and the sometimes hilarious characters and dialogue. I recommend it. A great escape.

Books. Books. Books.

 

Happy World Book Day!

 

Book Quotes / Book Thoughts

Do you ever think of random quotes from books? 

This one popped into my thoughts today from Great Expectations by Charles Dickens.

Little Women, a classic by Louisa May Alcott

On this first day of March, why not share Little Women, the classic novel about the March sisters.

This is the story of four sisters, Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy, living in Civil War era Massachusetts with their mother, called Marmee, while their father is away fighting in the war.

Meg is the oldest sister at 16 and is employed as a governess who is looking forward to life as a wife and mother, happily accepting the expectations that come with those roles during that time.

Josephine "Jo" March is the principal character at 15. She is stubborn, a "tomboy", and has a bit of a temper, but is also the most intelligent and creative in the family with a love of reading and hopes of becoming a novelist. Her best friend Theodore Laurence (whom she calls "Laurie") is like the brother she never had.

Beth is 13. She is shy, sweet, and quiet (except for her love of the piano) and wants nothing more than to be at home with her family that she loves so very much.

Amy is the youngest sister at age 12. She strives to be a proper young lady wanting desperately to be part of  "good society". While she is a bit vain and can be a touch self-centered, she loves her family and cherishes her sisters.

This is the story of these "little women" and their coming of age during the desperate and tumultuous times of war.