Reading Recommendations from the Northwoods

The Fault in our Stars--John Green

 

For a young adult book to merit its own full-page review in Time magazine on February 6th, it must be a pretty remarkable book. And it is!  I loved The Fault in our Stars, and could sit down and read it all over again.

It's a touching love story, for one thing, between Hazel and Augustus, who've met in a support group for adolescent cancer sufferers.   Hazel knows her cancer of thyroid and lung will be terminal, and Augustus has already had a leg amputated becuase of osteosarcoma.   

If you are thinking, "Ugh, why would I read a book about young kids dying from cancer?" your initial reaction matches mine.   But, what wonderful kids these two are---smart, thoughtful, funny, considerate, and insightful!  They ask the big questions:   "Why me and not others?"  "Will I be remembered?"  "How can I protect those who love me?"   They made me think about appreciating life and relationships and about how an individual life can affect the world.

Of course, the book is sad and is one of the first in a long time that made me shed tears.  But, The Fault in our Stars is also funny and heart-warming, and I felt I knew these teenagers, their parents and their friends.  The book has already been optioned for a movie, I understand, and what an emotional and meaningful movie it has the potential to be.

Narrator Hazel says early on that "cancer books suck."    Books and reading, in fact, play an important part of the plot, and have real impact on the characters.  A strange author character helps tie the whole plot together at the end.

Give The Fault in our Stars a chance, and I doubt you will put it down.  And, when you are finished, I predict that Hazel and Augustus will stay with you for a long time.

 

My Name is Mary Sutter--Robin Oliveira

 

This historical fiction about the Civil War follows Mary Sutter, a midwife from New York who desperately wants to be a surgeon.  During that time period, it was considered quite shocking that nurses, considered little more than prostitutes, might work in Army field hospitals.  So, of course, it was even more shocking to think that a female might desire to be a doctor herself.  

Mary is determined to learn all she can about medicine, even to the point of neglecting her family and risking her sister's death.   Along the way she meets two male doctors who mentor her, but also meets historical figures like President Lincoln, Dorthea Dix, and General McClellan.   Realistic history of the war is skillfully intertwined with Mary's fictional journey, and I thought both were compelling.

I learned a lot about the Civil War, watching it through Mary's eyes, and especially, got a very realistic picture----sometimes more realism than I wanted---about horrific hospital situations with no supplies, no doctors and nurses, no food, and no hygiene.  Near the end of the book, Mary muses how many lives would have been saved if they had just known enough to wash their hands between patients. 

Toward the end, I skimmed a bit, as I was more interested in characters and thought the plot got a bit long.   I didn't love the book, but I think a person with a fondness for historical fiction or for medical issues would.    I did care about the characters, particularly Mary, and wished them all well during this dreadful time in history.

 

Forgotten Garden--Kate Morton

 

Sprawling novels containing English manors, fairy tales, little girls, and family secrets are not usually my first choice.   But, The Forgotten Garden appeared on so many lists of titles recommended for book clubs that I thought I would give it a try.  

Little Nell is discovered all alone on an Australian dock, and is lovingly raised by the dockmaster and his wife.   On her 21st birthday, Nell is informed of her mysterious past, and she heads back to England to find the home she vaguely remembers as a little girl.  One clue is the small white suitcase containing a very rare book of original fairy tales which she carried with her as a little child.

The book travels from Australia to the Cornish coast of England.   And, it travels across great periods of time as well.   The plot follows the aristrocratic Mountrachet family of Cornwall, who in some gradually-explained way were Nell's ancestors, to Nell as a young woman, and then as a mother and grandmother.

Finally, the plot includes Nell's granddaughter Cassandra, who inherits the cottage with a secret garden following Nell's death.  Cassandra sets out to solve the whole puzzle of Nell's life, bringing the reader along with her on the search.

Because the book covers so much time in a non-chronological way, I often had to stop and orient myself as the book flipped from one time period to another.   So, it took a little patience, but that also made it more fun as the questions and characters and family secrets began to be resolved and revealed.   

I think Forgotten Garden may be just the kind of book to curl up with on a winter weekend, or on a cruise ship, if you are lucky enough to be going someplace sunny this February.   I enjoyed reading it.

 

How It All Began---Penelope Lively

 

The theme of How It All Began is made apparent from the first page, when 70-ish retired teacher Charlotte Rainsford suffers a broken hip during a purse-snatching.    Author Penelope Lively lets us know immediately that she is interested in how circumstances we don't even know about often can determine the directions of own lives.

"The Dalton's marriage broke up because Charlotte was mugged.  They did not know Charlotte and never would, though she would sit on the perimeter of their lives."  

Charlotte is forced to move in with daughter and son-in-law Rose and Gerry while she rehabs, where Rose meets Charlotte's attractive student Anton.  Rose's employer Henry becomes inconvenienced by her absence, so must depend on his niece Marion.  While helping her uncle, Marion meets a financial wheeler-dealer, with promise to become her business partner, and Marion's affair becomes known to lover Jeremy's wife, who starts divorce proceedings.

And, so on and so on!  In a plot reminding me of "This is the house that Jack built," these very interesting and likable characters deal with the changes, beyond their control, which newly shape their lives. 

In addition to a good plot and good characters, Lively's style is easy to read and her insights appealed to me on page after page.

"On a Richter scale of worry, child-worry peaks at a ten."

 "The past is our ultimate privacy.  We pile it up decade by decade and remember it in shreds, the tattered faulty contents of the mind." 

I've been enthusiastic about every Penelope Lively book I've read, and How It All Began is certainly no exception.