January Book List

Starting the New Year off right - ten books read this month.

The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova is one of my daughter's favorite books - one I picked up at a book sale. It is a tale of Dracula over several centuries and many countries. I enjoyed the historical aspects of the book.

City of Lies by Victoria Thompson is the first in the new 'Counterfiet Lady Novels' by the 'Gaslight Mysteries' author. Part of the book is based on the 1917 suffragists' daily demonstrations in front of the White House and their subsequent arrests. I think I am going to like this new series.

Death Zones and Darling Spies by Beverly Deepe Keever is the memoir of a woman journalist who covered the war in Vietnam from 1961 to 1968. 

Map of the Heart by Susan Wiggs was a thoroughly enjoyable read because of the multi-generational story going back to WWII and the French Resistance - also because photography played a huge part of the story.

Love and Other Consolation Prizes by Jamie Ford is based on the true story of a young Chinese-American orphan who was raffled off at the 1909 Seattle World's Fair, the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition. It is set during the 1962 Seattle World's Fair and related in segments from both time periods.

The It Girls by Karen Harper is a gossipy book about two sisters growing up in the 1870's on Jersey in the Channel Islands. Lots of name-dropping, globe-trotting, glitz and glamour, but very little plot and real substance - not my kind of book.

Burning Bright by Tracy Chevalier is a look at London in 1792-93 centered around the poet William Blake and his time living in Lambeth. This felt like a very realistic rendering of that time period. ("Tyger, tyger, burning bright.") 

Angels and Insects by A. S. Byatt is another book sale find. It is more than a little strange. I was surprised to find that it was made into a movie in 1995.

The Color of Lightning by Paulette Jiles is set in North Texas toward the end of the Civil War and was inspired by the true stories of the black free people who settled there looking for a new life. The book is a realistic look at the struggles they faced including raids and kidnappings by the Comanches and Kiowas.

Caroline, Little House Revisited by Sarah Miller tells the story of the Ingalls family in Kansas from Ma's point of view. The book was written with the approval of the Little House Heritage Trust.