Three Books I Highly Recommend
Are you in the mood to visit different places or times? Here you go- to modern England, or 900 years ago in Germany, or to America in the 1930’s! Good stories at each place in await you! Happy Reading!
Saving Saffron Sweeting by Pauline Wiles
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Reading this book is like curling up with a soft, luxurious cashmere blanket. Grace, the main character in this quiet and calm story, seeks comfort in just such a beautiful blanket when her life hits a perilous crossroads. Does an affair mean the end of the road?
Grace moved with her husband to the Silicon Valley area, for his career. When Grace discovers her husband had a fling, her first thought is to bolt back to her home country, England. Her plan is to take time to sort out her feelings. “We Brits don’t really do therapy; we just put the kettle on.”
She retreats to a charming town near Cambridge, Saffron Sweeting. There she meets a wonderful assortment of townsfolk, as well as newly transplanted Americans.
She begins to find herself as she develops an interesting job that fully uses her talents. She also meets an intriguing gentleman. Should she reconcile with her husband?
Grace is a likable character and her new friend and boss in Saffron Sweeting, Amelia, is a scene-stealer. I wouldn’t have handled things the way Grace did, but I enjoyed reading about her.
The author presents a balanced view of British and American life and culture. If you are an Anglophile, this is the book for you.
The book also appealed to me because it presented some positive life lessons in an entertaining way. The author writes with a warm, friendly voice, the book version of a cashmere blanket.
The Greenest Branch by P.K. Adams
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
900 years ago. What would it be like to go back to medieval times and see the towns and castles and how people lived? Do you imagine that it would be primitive and simple? What would it be like to follow a young girl of those times? Do you think that she would have had much of a life? Well, you can go back in time and see that world as if you were there, thanks to author P.K. Adams’ vivid and engaging story of Hildegard.
The Greenest Branch is the first in a two-book series based on the true story of Hildegard of Bingen, Germany’s first female physician and one of the few women to attain that position in medieval Europe. Readers, don’t worry about it being a two-book series. The first book is an engrossing and complete story and ends at a good point of closure. While I’m eager to read the second book, the first book was a beautiful experience and stands on its own.
Hildegard and her world are presented with eloquent word pictures. I was surprised that the world of the Rhineland and Europe was so sophisticated. By that time, early 1100’s, the Church and Emperors were well established, although feuding. Towns and trades, educational centers, and laws and the arts were all in place.
Opportunities for women were more in line with what I expected. Hildegard was the 10th child of well-off parents who loved her. Because she was the tenth, she was the “tithe” and was dedicated for Church work. She entered the Abbey of St. Disibod when she ten. The new Abbey was a stifling, strict place for a smart girl who loved nature but Hildegard’s natural abilities and her relationship with caring and educated church people helped her to grow and learn and create her own special vocation.
Hildegard tells her story in the first person which makes her seem so real. The writing style and voice is meditative and lyrical. Although there is detailed historical information, it is presented in a clear and readable way that makes the story flow with passion and excitement. Conflicts of theology and the rights of women are presented in a balanced and thoughtful way.
I highly recommend this book and I am looking forward to the second book in the series.
Sold on a Monday by Kristina McMorris
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Ellis Reed, an eager modern young man of his day, decides to seek his fortune in the feisty world of journalism. He starts out as the social page report for a paper in Philadelphia. But the success of his reporting leads to a better job with the Tribune in New York City. On his first day on the job in the city of gangsters, speakeasies and fast-living, Al Capone had just been found guilty of tax evasion. Thomas Edison had just died. Thirty thousand Hitlerites had paraded through Germany and Japan was plowing through Manchuria. And the Great Depression had America in its grip. It was 1931.
A blend of historical fiction and romance, this book will captivate you with its characters and storytelling. The story comes to life when Reporter Ellis takes a photo that he knows will showcase his first feature story- 2 raggedy kids, by a sign “Children for Sale.” But, he later makes a mistake with the photo that sets a tragedy in motion. Pictures, like people, so often were not as they appeared.
Ellis’ co-worker, secretary and hopeful journalist Lily, feels compassion for the children in the photo and encourages Ellis to right the wrong that transpired from his initial mistake with the photo. Lily is smart, skilled, brave and a loving single mother. Many harrowing and exciting events bombard Ellis and Lily as they seek to unravel the mysterious story behind the poor children’s plight.
The historical part of the story is captivating and highly readable. America is coming of age, just as Ellis and Lily are, and we get to see the world through their eyes. The author recreates for us this wild and vigorous world of the 1930’s.
Hope and progress vied with poverty and crime and mobsters and politicians were too often intertwined. Journalists and newspapers shared the stories of the day with exuberance. And American families tried to love and survive. A man’s gotta do what’s best for his family.
The romance part of the story involves Lily, Ellis and Clayton, a successful reporter, described as a thoughtful, successful, dashing man. We also read about the backstories of Ellis and Lily. The romance and the backstories weren’t as compelling for me as the historical story.
Readers, you will keep turning the pages of this book, as it is engaging and suspenseful. I will you decide if the plot is a bit farfetched or if it is just whizbang good storytelling. Recommend!
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC. This is my honest review.
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